Obama Using Public Schools To Recruit Agenda Advancing Interns

By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
Sun, 01/31/2010 – 01:23 ET

A rather disturbing document surfaced on the Internet Saturday with grave implications concerning how the Obama administration is recruiting interns from public schools to assist in advancing the President’s agenda along with his desire to get Democrats including himself elected.

Even scarier, the internship application recommends participants read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.”

Read more: Newsbusters

Obama’s strategy: Blame the other guys

Frustrated by the GOP’s ability to block his initiatives, the president plans to make sure voters know who’s really to blame.

By Doyle McManus

January 31, 2010

The gloves are off.

President Obama made a brief effort to sound bipartisan last week, saying he still hoped to find some ideas that both parties can embrace.

But the affability was mostly tactical, and so were the professions of hope. The reigning emotion at the White House has been frustration — frustration that Obama’s mandate for change has eroded and that Republicans have been so successful in mounting an effective opposition.

Read more: LA Times

Democrats quietly working to resuscitate healthcare overhaul

By Noam N. Levey

January 30, 2010 | 8:16 p.m.

Reporting from Washington – President Obama’s campaign to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system is officially on the back burner as Democrats turn to the task of stimulating job growth, but behind the scenes party leaders have nearly settled on a strategy to salvage the massive legislation.

Read more: LA Times

Worst of Snowstorm Now Hitting Virginia into Maryland, Delaware

Snowfall totals will continue climbing across eastern Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey through early tonight as a powerful storm skirts by to the east. Over a foot of snow will bury some communities, making travel nearly impossible. Even people in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore are dealing with the messy weather with snow totals expected to reach 3 to 6 inches by this evening.

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Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe

By Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman

Excerpt from the Aug. 1, 2002, ‘Torture Memo’:

For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

Read more: Newsweek

Rep. Waters: Dems who say healthcare is ‘on life support are correct’

By Tony Romm – 01/30/10 10:45 AM ET

Add Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) to the list of Democrats who now say their healthcare reform bills are imperiled.

During an interview on Friday, the congresswoman stressed it was going to be “very difficult” to pass that legislation in the coming weeks, mostly because House and Senate leaders are still without a “roadmap” and have yet to address key policy differences between the two chambers’ efforts

Read more: The Hill

Text of Obama’s meeting at the Republican Retreat

Thank you, John, for the gracious introduction.

To Mike and Eric, thank you for hosting me.

Thank you to all of you for receiving me. It is wonderful to be here.

I want to also acknowledge Mark Strand, the president of the Congressional Institute.

To all the family members who are here and who have to put up with us who are in elective office each and every day, thank you, because I know that’s tough.

(APPLAUSE)

I very much am appreciative of not only the tone of your introduction, John, but also the invitation that you extended to me. You know what they say, “Keep your friends close, but visit the Republican Caucus every few months.”

(LAUGHTER)

Now, part of the reason I accepted your invitation to come here was because I wanted to speak with all of you, and not just to all of you. So I’m looking forward to taking your questions and having a real conversation in a few moments.

And I hope that the conversation we begin here doesn’t end here, that we can continue our dialogue in the days ahead

Read more: Washington Post

Judge: Prayer Before NC Meeting Unconstitutional

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.  — A federal judge has ruled that the use of prayer to open a North Carolina county board of commissioners meeting violates the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge James A. Beaty Jr. on Thursday adopted recommendations made earlier by a magistrate judge.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued in 2007 on behalf of two Forsyth County residents who said many meetings opened with Christian-themed prayers

Read more: Church Report

Obama encourages House GOP leaders to ‘challenge’ him at retreat

By Tony Romm – 01/29/10 12:29 PM ET

President Barack Obama on Friday encouraged House Republicans to “challenge my ideas” and continue to “stand up for your beliefs,” but he pointedly criticized the caucus for playing politics on important, must-pass reforms.

Read more: The Hill

‘Too White’ Berkeley Science Labs May Be Cut

by  Roger Hedgecock
01/29/2010

The Berkeley (CA) Board of Education will consider, at its February 3 meeting, whether or not to cancel before and after school Science Labs for Advanced Placement Science classes at Berkeley High School because the classes are attended largely by white students. The proposal is aimed at addressing “Berkeley’s dismal racial achievement gap”

Read more: Human Events